February and March, 2003, Manchester, UK
It seems Tom Sudall is haunted by the number three in all his
endeavours. He was one third of the odd lo-fi indie rock trio B-Fab Uk
and since they became dormant he's been promoting gigs in triads themed
as The Brown Barrel. Each trio of gigs is prefaced by a tiny free Smuggler
fanzine in which all the performers are interviewed with the same set
of questions. The last trio of ragged eclectic artnoise explorations
occured at Manchester's coolest haunt of recent times, the smart art
gallery bar Tmesis. At the opening blast, headliners Kling Klang rocked
up a synthesised krautpunk storm and answered all questions with the
word 'Frazz.' Macrocosmica came down from Glasgow to riff heavy and
murky, with former Telstar Ponies drummer Brendan O'Hare strapping on
six strings that drew sludge. The vocals were quite weak and detracted
from their onslaught but otherwise it was a greasy monkey of a gig.
They like tickling children, or so they say. Local duo Our Beautiful
Ridiculous Plan played sensitive meandering instrumental beauty cards
that you couldn't put your arms around. They describe themselves as
sounding akin to Bonnie Prince Billie without the vocals, but reminded
me more of the post-Rodan Louisville continuum. Their prefered reading
is The Squatter's Handbook and Alfredo Bonano's Riot to Insurrection.
Two weeks later an early start for electro-probers Robot Arm meant I
missed them, but at the risk of Jon Whitney carrying out his threats to
send hordes of rabid Coil fans round to smear my back door in blood and
semen, I'm just going to have to compare Ampersound to Wire. There were
some programmed rhythms they set off that definitely had an inadvertant
likeness to one of the most illuminated bands of the eighties. One of
them plays traditional Japanese string instruments which give them a
fake devotional feel, but at times the other guy's guitar playing got a
bit too noodly and brought me crashing down from the nice streets
above. Sat behind a keyboard and drum machine, Illuminati headlined
unobtrusively in appearance if not in sound, as high pitches had
bartender Debbie clutching her ears in protest! Dave Clarkson confesses
to a great love of Throbbing Gristle and treacle sponge, and the former
shows in his primitivist hard soundscaping. He surprised everyone by
whipping out an axe and adding some low key guitar noise to his petri
dish of magnetizing microbial ambience.
The third gig a fortnight later opened with a Zoviet France homage from
Russet and Brown who were at their best when they amped up a heavy
distorted loop. They say this is like looking at a blank wall through a
thousand eyes, but for me it was more a pleasant backdrop for boozey
chatter. The Owl Project play laptops in wooden logs putting a treetop
twist on the glitch-beat interface. They are trying to mimic the sound
of electrical campfire at high magnification and use their stark yet
slightly cute beats to try to communicate electronically with roosting
owls. What the owls think of this is anyone's guess, but it's possible
they took on human form and called themselves Black Curtain. The three
black masked beings harrangued an arch psychedelic groove with definite
Faust overtones. Maybe they'd work just as well as an instrumental
combo, but the vocalist's exuberance couldn't be denied. However like
Faust, often the drums carried it. One of them also plays guitar and
keyboards for Twisted Nerve's Mum and Dad, but Black Curtain are
certainly a stranger progbeast beaming in from the outer part,
unleashing fragmented fictions from their soon come third album.
For links on all these bands and news on future Brown Barrel happenings, check out the B-Fab UK site.
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